Tropes Q to T / Questionable Content

Back to the main page.

Quantity vs. Quality: Marigold has a sealed (and possibly only) copy of Colo-Rectal Mecha Dorm Room, the horniest hentai movie of all time. All physical copies were supposed to have been destroyed and Marigold plans to sell hers to help fund May's body replacement. Subverted when she reveals it's only worth about eighty bucks.
Marigold: There's rips of it online. It's the horniest anime ever made but it's also terrible.
Quintessential British Gentleman: Pintsize behaves like this when his locale setting is changed to British.
Quote-to-Quote Combat: #2243 features an idiom battle between Marten and Tai. Marten wins.
The Rant: Sometimes rather long and detailed, sometimes an indecipherable drawl, and sometimes just a simple "honk" or "comic comic comic".
Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil:
- According to Marten.
- A more meta example in one of the earliest comics where the word 'rape' was replaced by 'hump.' Jeph left it fairly clear that the change was made after the fact.
Rapid-Fire Comedy: Sometimes. It's supposed to be a gag-per-day format, aside from strips about relationships and angst. Most jokes are supported by snide comments from somebody else present in the same panel. If the strip features no beat panels and buildups, it can make each panel like that.
Readings Are Off the Scale: Hanelore's new gong's power level is Over Nine Thousand.
Read the Freaking Manual: It turns out that some A.I.s are guilty of not reading the manuals for the bodies they occupy.
- When she does read the manual, Roko is amused to discover that her new body can change its "skin" color at whim. But Yay points out that her previous body had the same capability.
- Similarly, Millefeuille didn't know that she has voluntary control of her own hairstyle.
Reality Is Unrealistic: Occasionally complaints crop up about the Improbably Female Cast, but it turns out that Northampton really is roughly 60% female and 40% male, largely due to the presence of the all-girls' Smith College. (Represented as "Smif College" in the QC universe.)
Real Life Writes the Plot: A week of unplanned guest comics ran in late October and early November 2011 due to an extended power outage caused by the late-October snowstorms' damage to what were already temporary post-Hurricane Irene repairs to the Western Mass power grid.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Bubbles drops one on Pintsize so vicious that even Faye is stunned.
Reckless Gun Usage: Marten doesn't observe taser safety and accidentally shocks himself. Of course, he was drunk.
Red Eyes, Take Warning:
- Faye issuing a death mandate to Pintsize against Sven's latest hook-up.
- Dora gets her turn when Hanners asks Sven on a pretend date.
- Faye gets HER turn when "convincing" Dora to get a therapist.
- And again Dora, when she learns about Sven's antics regarding Faye.
- Leda, one of the A.I.s working in Idoru, gets these when she mentions that the launch codes weren't deleted from her database when she was transferred from a nuclear ballistic missile submarine to a standard civilian chassis.
Refuge in Audacity:
- Mentioned in 305.
- Executed in 982, somewhat lampshaded in 989.
- An unintentional example can be found in 1115.
- Another complete with "You know what, never mind. I'm sorry I asked." in 3010.
Refusal of the Call: Zig-zagged when Claire is offered a job creating the information services department for an entire community that AIs are building off the coast of Nova Scotia:
Marten: So did you take the job?
Claire: [irate] Did I take the job?! I'm completely underqualified and their entire organization seems like a shambolic mess!
Marten: Oh.
Claire: ... So we need to pick some dates to go up and see what it's like. Then I'll decide.
Marten: [startled] Oh!
Remember the New Guy?: Dale.
Retcon:
- Cosette's last name used to be Beaumarchais. Now it's Hurlbut.
- Also, Marten's father's boyfriend and now husband used to be an environmental engineer. Now he's a golf instructor, although given their age, it's entirely possible that he retired off-panel.
- When Hanners' dad sends her a robot boyfriend, Faye says "AnthroPCs are one thing, but you don't see fully humanoid robots running around everywhere." A few years later, yes you do, and this isn't presented as something new in-universe.
Reveal Shot: In one strip, Sven is alone in the frame, pouring his heart about about his troubled relationships with Dora and Faye... and then in the final frame, we pull out to reveal that he's been doing this to a completely uninterested May, who's taking a break from work.
May: Buddy, I don't even know who you are.
Sven: Exactly! Exactly. Who am I?
A Riddle Wrapped in a Mystery Inside an Enigma: When someone references Raven's indecipherable status (Is she just a Ditz given to being unusually insightful, or a Genius Ditz who uses Obfuscating Stupidity?), Raven responds, "I'm a mystery wrapped in an enigma wrapped in an AWESOME rack!"
Ridiculously Human Robot: All of the A.I.s prove to be this more and more as the strip goes on.
Right in Front of Me: One of Tai's friends voices her disbelief at how Dora's ex has no problems with the fact that she and Tai are in a relationship, without realizing that the guy in question, Marten, is standing right next to Tai. Marten, however, is too amused at the scene to say anything.
Ring Around the Collar: Marten gets shanghaied into cosplaying a yaoi character wearing collar, tie, cuffs and no shirt.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Implied if Marten had done anything.
Clinton: Damnit, my hand is stuck is murder-mode. Let's go to the grocery store, I need to find something trachea-like for it to crush.
Robo Romance:
- A minor side plot involves a robot romance between background characters Seven and Jeremy.
- There's also at least one relationship between a human and a robot that's highly romantic on the robot side, but that doesn't strictly fit within the trope definition.
Robosexual:
- Only hinted at.
- Faye and Bubbles were hinted as such here and here; later strips confirm it.
- Some of the more humanoid AnthroPCs are obviously meant to cater to this, such as the prototype of one that looked like Jude Law with a prehensile Gag Penis. It's also mutual. Momo has fantasized about Sven before, and Pintsize is a Lovable Sex Maniac.
  No one is quite sure who decided it would be useful for artificial intelligences to posess [sic] libidos, but it is generally agreed that it would be more trouble than it is worth to remove it. Besides, the horny little buggers would revolt.
- Hannelore's dad (might have) had sex with a computer.
- Tilly and Station are now a couple, although given Station is an AI running a space station with a holographic avatar, what form that relationship might take is anyone's guess.
- Sven and May hook up and work this trope fairly hard, even into Extreme Omnisexual territory.
Robo Ship:
- In-universe, Claire ships Faye and Bubbles, although Marten is sceptical.
- May also appears to think this is a possibility.
  May: For what it's worth, I think you're all right. I hope you and Bubbles make up and have a million babies or whatever.
  Faye: How would that even work?
  May: I dunno, Pokémon meets The Fly?
Robot Buddy: AnthroPCs in general, and Pintsize and Winston in particular.
Robot Girl: Momo has the weirdest dreams...
Robot Sex Is Depraved: When Marten jokes that he imagines this is how AI was invented, Hanners says she once asked her father (who invented the technology), but he panicked and avoided answering the question.
Robots Think Faster: Subverted; Momo explains that the vast majority of her processing power is taken up just maintaining her sentience, and she doesn't experience time any differently than humans. The big A.I.s might think faster, but their minds are too alien to translate into human terms; thinking on a human level is just a subroutine to them.
Robot War: Put on indefinite hold, mostly because the robots realized that if they won they'd be in charge, and who wants that responsibility?
Roommate Com: The webcomic begins with 20-something Marten Reid and his Anthro PC Pintsize. The first "arc" has Marten and his buddy Steve hanging out at a bar, bitching about their love and work lives. Marten soon gets a roommate in Faye, and they form a group of True Companions along with Marten's OCD neighbor and Faye's coworkers.
Roses Are Red, Violets Are Blue..., you are really hot, let's fuck. Yes, it's Sven.
Rule of Cool: The lens flare was added because lens flares are awesome and if you disagree you are dumb.
Rule of Funny: Most of the crazy stuff that happens, but Hannelore's obsessive-compulsive disorder deserves special mention since, as an OCD sufferer himself, Jacques can hardly be said to have not done the research.
Rule 34:
- Mentioned here. Rule 35 is discussed and given the name "Quantum Fetish Mechanics". Rule 49 and Rule 44 are also implicated.
- Mentioned by name by Pintsize, of course.
Running Gag:
- The word "dang/daaaang", usually in response to something sexual.
- Surprise-kisses on Friday. So far there have been four. When there was a kiss that WASN'T posted on Friday, Jeph lampshaded it in the news post for that day.
- The specials list on the blackboard at Coffee of Doom.
- The broadsword under the counter at Coffee of Doom, which is used and fooled around within various comics.
- The Bros, a pack of guys who appear chanting "Bro!" whenever the word is spoken.
- The Victorian-dress bar.
- Responding to unusual happenings with an exasperated "This fucking town..."
- When Emily tries to sass the customers in proper Coffee of Doom fashion, she resorts to insisting a customer's name is "Bleminda." Not much later, the whole staff is calling her Bleminda. Eventually, it starts spreading to her friends.
  "Garbaldo": My name isn't-
  "Bleminda": Just roll with it.
- Post-coital party Arbor Day decorations.
- After the "Steve eating cereal" comic, Jeph will frequently reference the event after dramatic strips.
- Coffee Of Doom has been trading roasted coffee beans for pastry with The Secret Bakery, but the roasting process seems to frequently go askew. First Dora forgets to roast extra beans, then it's full of spiders, then...
  Hannalore: Here's this week's beans. I made sure the raccoon didn't get in them this time.
  Elliot: Raccoon? ... This time?
- "Butts Disease", a condition where artists become obsessed with butts and can only draw butts is referenced fairly often. It actually first appeared in a guest comic before spreading to the main comic and even appearing in other guest comics.
  - As of late 2019, the disease appears to be entering its final stages.
- Holding some sort of celebration when characters get together. With a banner that says "Happy Arbor Day 2003", because that's the only one they have.
- A short-lived Running Gag was that every time Faye hugged Bubbles, she would bonk her head on Bubbles' armour. This has been discontinued since Bubbles took her armour off.
Russian Reversal: In Soviet Russia, cake mixes you!
Sand In My Eyes: Angus after this touching moment.
Sarcastic Confession: Of sorts. Hannelore's first meeting with Marten.
Scare Quotes: When Bubbles says slang terms, her speech bubbles include quote marks around them. Faye says she can hear the quote marks, and Bubbles says it's because of micro-pauses.
Scary Librarian: Claire isn't exactly a frightening person, being a dorky woman with a penchant for puns. However, that doesn't stop the Cubetown rumor mill from turning her, through the power of Gossip Evolution, into a terrifying librarian who once shushed someone to death.
Scary Shiny Glasses:
- Somebody likes NGE... Somehow he can even do it without a light source!
- He is not the only one. Amazingly, she can do it without even wearing glasses.
- Dale's constantly-shiny-from-any-angle-regardless-of-ambient-light glasses are eventually revealed to be backlit AR specs.
Scenery Censor:
- Two conveniently placed bottles protect Raven's breasts from us while she flashes Sven.
- Mieville gets in on the act.
Schizo Tech: Despite everything being the present day, sapient A.I.s are a noticeable minority and orbital space stations are considered normal (PDFs appear to be obsolete.)
Science-Related Memetic Disorder: Hannelore's father.
Scooby Stack: Lampshaded.
Screw Yourself: Roko has a dream involving the ghosts of her old and new bodies. It ends with them making out.
"Second Law" My Ass!: Pintsize. He loves making obscene jokes and generally being a pain in everybody's ass (so no real regard for the first or second law, although he generally does no real harm, just annoyance) and some of his stunts are predictably bad for his own well-being (such as eating a slice of cake, even though he knew it'd damage his hardware, so he also doesn't give a damn about the third law).
Seinfeldian Conversation: Constantly, such as:
Marten: I got a haircut.
Dora: You got a haircut?!
Faye: He got a haircut!
Self-Deprecation: The Rant in many strips:
- From #1704:
  Don't worry, this isn't a setup to hire a new CoD girl. The last thing my comic needs right now is another female character!*
  * watch- having said that, I'll introduce one tomorrow.
- From #1705:
  COMING MONDAY: SIXTEEN BRAND NEW FEMALE COFFEE OF DOOM EMPLOYEES, EACH WITH HER OWN ADORABLE QUIRK!
  j/k
  I hope
- #2066 has Jeph appearing as an extra in the first panel. The Rant says: "Cheer up, stupid-looking guy in the first panel"
Serious Business: For Marigold, Horde vs. Alliance is SERIOUS BUSINESS. Followed up on later with a shout-out.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Marten lapses into this when drunk.
Sex for Solace: Referenced and defied after Dora breaks up with Marten...
Sven: Oh, and if you need some meaningless rebound sex, I know TONS of slutty chicks who'll-
Marten: OKAY THANK YOU BYE
Sexual Euphemism: In the world of QC, where some robots walking around have realistic genitalia, it's insensitive to refer to them as being "anatomically correct". The proper phrase is "human standard".^note
Sexy Santa Dress: QC's Christmas comics!
Shaped Like Itself: The bottom text on this strip: "millipedes: nature's millipedes"
She Cleans Up Nicely: Marigold hates this trope.
She Is All Grown Up: Happens in Momo's fantasy shot.
Shipper on Deck:
- Dora ships Angus/Faye.
- Hanners ships Marigold/Francis (the scientist from John Ellicott's space station).
  Hannelore: MARIGOLD. HE. IS. FLIRTING. WITH. YOU!
- Marten lampshades this immediately afterwards.
  Marten: "You're really dead set on that 'reasonable number of babies', huh?"
- Marten and Faye both ship Dora/Tai.
- A drunken (and concerned about her own lack of long-term relationship) Mrs. Reed tries to blatantly set up Marten/Claire. Later on, Tai openly states "OMG I SHIP IT" when she learns that Marten and Claire are a couple.
- Faye and Bubbles had virtually the entire cast pushing them to hook up, assuming they already had or shipping them in the meantime, for hundreds of strips while their relationship was platonic and Faye was uninterested in sex with anyone. This included a psych PHD overtly trying to push Faye into the ship.
  - Faye and Bubbles get together as a couple while Hannelore is off around the world. When she returns she can't resist doing this again:
    Bubbles: Ah, Hannelore. Greetings.
    [Faye and Bubbles stand there looking at Hannelore, who stands there smiling at them expectantly. Finally:]
    Faye: [as Bubbles puts her arms around her and smooches the top of her head] Happy to oblige.
    Hannelore: [squees]
Ship Sinking:
- Jeph is fine with shipping his characters (and his characters shipping other characters, and shipping mutually fictional media) as long as he approves of the ship. He did not approve of Marigold/Hannelore, so he shot down the popular ship complete with Lampshade Hanging (and Take That!) here and here. A major stated reason is dislike of heterosexual characters being shipped homosexually when there are several bi and homosexual characters already.
- Faye/Marten. Although put on hold before The Talk and his relationship with Dora, it was specifically sunk here, two strips later, and these two.
- Marigold/Tai.
Ship Tease:
- The entirety of the first 500 strips could be considered a Ship Tease for Faye/Marten.
- As well as every time any of their relationships with a third party end.
- You bastard.
- Hannelore/Sven: Unexpected twist? Well, not really. The possibility that some shippers out there probably are tearing their hair out? Likely.
- Hannelore and Marten's first meeting, conversation and interactions including some traditional Ship Tease. Her characterization changed quite a bit later. 1500 strips and 5 and a half years later they get some new Just Friends styled ship tease, when Strip 1984 involves Marten pondering what he wants and needs from and out of life. The first thing he does upon figuring it out is to go straight to Hannelore. Strip 2147 has Hannelore's father instantly think that Marten was the friend who taught Hannelore that physical contact is a good thing. And that the physical contact was sex. Strip 2152 has a character assume they came up to space together for zero g sex and the word Just Friends starts getting thrown about.
- Tai/Dora was teased from #2200 on. They eventually do hook up.
- Marigold/Sven, Marigold/Dale, Marigold/Angus, Marigold/Hannelore—Jeph likes Marigold.
  - Two out of these four have been sunk, but Oh boy, was the Marigold/Dale ship teased.
- Ever since Claire admitted to Marten that she's transgender, they've both been getting a lot of scenes together. It gets particularly blatant when Marten goes to his father's wedding and brings her along as his guest.
  - "I am trolling you guys pretty hard"
- Pretty much every couple gets a couple of teases in there somewhere.
- Sven/Momo get some of this. After Momo had a sexual dream about Sven, she freaks out on the few occasions that she sees or talks to him. She was horrified when she met him by coincidence while she was with May because she didn't want to let May be May in front of him. She didn't want May to embarrass her in front of him. It's hinted at that she cares greatly about his opinion of her.
- Around a year was spent shipping Faye/Bubbles after the robot fighting club arc ended.
Shock Site: Turns out Marten's mom knows the Goatse guy! As a side note, his name actually ''is'' Kirk.
Shoot the Shaggy Dog: An In-Universe example, following Marten and Dora's breakup in strip 1799. Also counts as a Lampshade Hanging and, as noted above, a Continuity Nod / Call-Back in this strip makes it fall under "Angst? What Angst?" territory.
Shout-Out: Now on their own page.
Shown Their Work: Fans from the Northampton area are continually impressed by the backgrounds of the city since anyone familiar with the real Northampton can recognize the slightly-changed version of real places.
Show-and-Tell Antics: Referenced. Marten mentions having gotten in trouble for bringing some of his mother's (a professional dominatrix and fetish model) professional gear to school for show-and-tell.
Show Within a Show:
- The manga/anime Magical Love Gentleman; Marigold is a serious fan, and introduced Hannelore and Angus to it.
- The French sitcom "Hans van Klompen-Klacke", produced as a mean-spirited joke against the Dutch after they won a sporting event. Liz' Dutch parents still enjoyed it..
Shrinking Violet: Marigold is often shy because of her low self-esteem, and has an impulse to retreat from social situations that test her comfort zone.
Sickeningly Sweethearts: Referenced in #772.
A Side Order of Romance: Angus became a regular at Coffee of Doom mainly because he liked Faye's Tsundere attitude and Witty Banter with him. They eventually started going out, until he moved away to New York and they broke up.
Significant Monogram: Penelope Gaines. Pizza Girl. Read into that what you will.
Single-Stroke Battle: Parodied.
The Singularity:
- The Singularity apparently happens just before strip 1777. The effect on the cast is negligible. Apparently a lot of supercomputers got wicked smart, but since they still like humans, the effects are contained.
- As of strip 3391 we may have met a post-singularity AI/agent thereof, and boy are they creepy.
  - But, it turns out, apparently benign, within their own Blue-and-Orange Morality.
Slapstick: When much of Momo's hair is accidentally burned off, she is desperate for Bubbles and Faye to do what they have to to get her artificial hair to grow back. This turns out to involve Momo being dunked head-first for six to eight hours in a giant bucket of solution. Bonus points because she's giving them a thumbs-up.
Faye: [concerned] Are you sure—
Bubbles: It is the most efficient way.
- May gets a lot of this, what with her sub-par robot chassis. At one point her arm falls off, following which she trips over Dale's sword and loses half her facial myomer, having to go out in public with a paper bag over her head. Or when Pintsize doubles down on her fart noise app by 'pooping' a load of brownie batter into her face. When Faye sets about repairing May's dodgy hip socket, she notes that she found a pubic hair in there. This is because May and Sven have been using said hip socket as a sex orifice.
- Even Yay (who identifies as "gender non-committal") gets in on the act, when Cosmo the dog, thinking that Yay is kidnapping Aurelia, grabs Yay's shorts in her teeth and yanks them down at the back.
  Yay: We appplaud your protective instinct, but now is not the time, Cosmo.
Slasher Smile: Dora, what the hell?
Sleep Cute:
- Subverted with Marten and Faye.
- Played straight with Marten and Claire.
Slut-Shaming: Inverted when Faye sleeps with Sven. She freaks out and calls herself a slut while her therapist reassures her that sex doesn't have to be bad and a casual relationship could be just what she needs.
Smoking Hot Sex:
- Pintsize.
- Faye's snarkgasm of SCORN!: see Unsound Effect below. "Phew! I need a cigarette!"
- Again, from Hannelore of all people.
Smug Snake: Faye and Bubbles' boss Corpse Witch. She even lampshades her smugness at one point.
Social Semi-Circle: Marten's family's table at his fathers' wedding.
Sophisticated as Hell: The station computer.
Sorkin Relationship Moment: Partial trope namer.
Spaghetti Kiss: Done with a twist for how Marten's parents met.
Speech-Bubble Censoring: Dora gets one for one breast only, the other one is behind Tai’s arm.
Speech Bubbles: Human characters have ellipse-shaped ones, A.I.s (except for Yay) have rectangular ones.
- Alone of all the characters, Bubbles has a distinctive font, which looks like a slightly modified version of OCR-A. When Faye repeats Bubbles' words while talking to Yay, the font in her speech bubble becomes the one that Bubbles uses.
Spider Swarm: The comic has the Coffee of Doom's basement, also known (rightfully) as the Spider Zone.
Spit Take:
- A double one - Et voila.
- Lampshaded?
- Marten does one in zero gravity.
- Claire manages to do one while drinking through a straw.
Spock Speak: Faye did this in the early strips, partly to disguise her Southern accent and partly as a defense mechanism. It went away when she was drunk, and has been phased out completely as she's gotten a better grip on her issues.
Spotlight-Stealing Squad:
- Averted, with much effort on Jeph's part, with Hanners and Marigold. For a while after their introduction, Jeph had to be careful with them so as not to push the other main characters out of the spotlight.
- Played very straight with Claire. After she was introduced, she was in practically every strip, though she ended up Out of Focus briefly thereafter. Her reveal of being transgender followed by Marten bringing her along to his dad's wedding pushed her right back to the forefront — and that was before Jeph followed up his Ship Tease by putting her and Marten into an actual relationship ...
Spy Speak: No, mother, the peaches are NOT ripe!
Squee:
- Dora over the idea of Faye and Angus together. Literally, even. And, previously, Marigold after going out to drink with the others.
- Weaponized by Hannelore.
- Marten and Hannelore are practically bursting with it.
- The QC Forums absolutely exploded with it after Claire and Marten got their Relationship Upgrade, and even more so once they have their first time.
Stating the Simple Solution:
- When Hannelore's dad sends her a strange device, and she, Marten, and Claire spend an entire page wondering what it does, starting with disinfectant, to a targeter for orbital bombardment, to having unintended side-effects on robots that might make Pintsize super-powerful. And then Dora walks in:
  Marten: Hannelore's dad sent her this weird DEVICE and we can't figure out what it's for.
  Dora: Why don't you just call him and ask?
- Hannelore's response to Marigold coming into the coffee shop seeking Dale, after his shift has ended and he's already left, is to simply call him and tell him to get back to the shop to see her. Marigold's screams of embarrassment are priceless.
  Hannelore: Hi Dale, it's Hannelore. Marigold is here to see you!
  Marigold: AAA! AAAAAA!!!
  Hannelore: Yes, that's her screaming.
Stock Superhero Day Jobs: Inverted by Pizza Girl and Chinese Delivery Man. Inversion kind-of lampshaded here. Apparently the mundane is the new super! Though I suppose you'd have to be super to meet some of those delivery deadlines.
Strange Minds Think Alike:
- Both Dora and Mrs. Reed have the same reaction to Tai.
- Faye and Marten have the same preconception about Bubbles' stomach construction.
- Winslow and Hannelore: "What if alligators" indeed.
- After Claire passes her exams, Emily, Hannelore, and Clinton all independently decide to give her a build-your-own-theremin^note kit as a congratulatory gift. Faye was also planning to get her one, but forgot to order it in time.
  Claire: Is this a bit? Am I being pranked?
Strictly Formula: Mostly averted, though because of its day-to-day life storytelling qualities, the same situations pop up with great frequency. One of the most common plot threads in the series was Dora freaking out on Marten over something, Marten reacting negatively, the two talking to other people about their argument, then both apologizing and making up (this has happened about five times in major arcs thus far). Steve has gone through a few "has awkward hook-up with the new girl, they awkwardly go through the first stages of a relationship, then they break up" storylines so far. This is largely justified considering it's mostly Slice of Life, and real couples do do this sort of thing all the time.
Stuck in the Doorway: In this strip, Renee, Claire, Clinton, and Brun all try to go through a door at once while tipsy and end up stuck.
Renee: Elliot, push!
Claire: Don't push!
Stylistic Suck:
- Marigold's Harry Potter fanfic Hermione and Ginny versus the Space Wizards.
- This comic, consisting of equal parts Breaking the Fourth Wall (which the author normally hates), "lazily-rendered robot jokes," ridiculously blatant Fanservice, and near-total darkness (concealing more fanservice).
Sure, Let's Go with That: When Melon meets Spookybot:
Melon: Yay! New friend!
Roko: Melon, this is...uh...
Spookybot: Hello, Melon. We're...Yay. Yay Newfriend.
Melon: Pleasetameetcha, Yay!
Roko: SNRK
Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Turns out telling a recovering alcoholic you're going to hold a booze-fuelled party at her place and all she needs to do is not drink is a bad idea.
Faye: Get. The FUCK.' Outta my shop.
Suspiciously Specific Denial: Used often, but Hanners is the creepy goddess of this trope.
Sweat Drop: Momo can actually do this, by oozing a special liquid out of her scalp.
- Willow gets these while attempting to make friends with Faye, which Faye (being Faye) actually appreciates.
  Faye: [stone-faced] Are you always this chipper?
  Willow: [sweating heavily] I'm extremely intimidated by you, so I'm masking it by being cheerful and outgoing! Is it working?
  Faye: [brightly] Now see, if you'd opened with that, I'da been more receptive! I like bein' intimidating!
Take Our Word for It: Marten's dad's wedding reception. You Should've Seen It.
Take That!:
- Plenty to bands that Jacques doesn't like.
- SUCK IT, WILLIS
Take That, Audience!:
- Occasionally to the Shipping fanbase.
- See the quote at the top of the main page.
Take This Job and Shove It: Dale. When he gets the job at Coffee of Doom, immediately quits his pizza delivery job.
Faye: The sparklers were a nice touch.
Technically a Smile:
- Hannelore.
- Faye.
- Mieville.
Tempting Fate: Sorry, Clinton.
Clinton: [relaxing at a bar with a beer] Ahh. Here's to an uneventful rest of the evening.
[In the next frame, the bar is a blazing wreck, and Clinton and grumpy bartender Brun are standing out in the street watching the fire service trying and failing to put it out.]
Their First Time: The strip plays with a variation on the classic form with Dale and Marigold. Their initial courtship is tentative and cautious, but they eventually arrange a simple date. However, Marigold breaks out in hives out of nervousness, overdoes the antihistamines in response, and passes out just as Dale arrives. Dale then proves a perfect gentleman, putting her to bed with Momo's help and then sitting up with Momo to make sure that Marigold is okay. He's still there in the morning and makes Marigold pancakes. She says nothing, looks at him, and takes him to the bedroom. After which, they settle down to a quiet relationship — aside from the sex, which is frequent and may get a little noisy.
Themed Tattoos: Sam uses permanent markers to draw artistic designs on robots which she calls "sprays", which are treated as temporary tattoos. In #4701, Beepatrice and Millefeuille show up to get matching sprays.
There Are No Therapists: Averted multiple times.
- Hannelore has regular therapy sessions, and Faye started seeing Hannelore's therapist.
- In the wake of Dora and Marten's breakup, Faye demanded that Dora see a therapist because of the stupidity of her reason for the breakup, which she eventually did.
Theremin: For some reason, when Claire is celebrating her exams success, three of her friends all show up with the same congratulatory gift — a theremin construction kit. (What If anything this implies is unclear, beyond the fact that they all maybe see her as a little bit geeky.) It’s not exactly a Gift-Giving Gaffe, but Claire understandably gets a bit sarcastic after the third.
Thinking Tic: Most characters will raise an index to their faces when thinking aloud
This Is for Emphasis, Bitch!: "Now we're even. Bitch."
Those Two Guys: The Bro Guys. They never fail to show up for moments of bro-ness.
"BROS BROS BROS BROS"
Thousand-Yard Stare:
- Hannelore.
- Faye, after her Percussive Therapy.
Time Skip:
- Between 1310 and 1311.
- Another between 3119 and 3126^note, between which were a Christmas comic and a brief story arc about a barbarian named Bembo.
- Strips 4812 to 4845 take place over the course of one day, in which Aurelia and Marigold meet up to do a VTube collab, which takes an unexpected turn leading to major online fallout. 4846 begins with Clinton stating that it has been several months since this occurred.
Tinman Typist: Artificial intelligences who have desk jobs can just plug into their workstations, and can also interface directly with the internet in their heads, but some prefer to "work externally."
Toilet Humor: A surprising amount, a symptom of what Jeph refers to as his "Butts disease" (whereby he is obsessed with butts and the inherent comedy they embody). May they never find a cure.
Tomato Skunk Stink Cure: The trope is invoked in this strip, mostly to embarrass Elliot.
Took a Level in Badass: At first, it was assumed that Steve's 'bus trip' was the result of a drunken stupor. Then he was more or less validated.
Too Much Information: A common trope.
- Marten gives as good as he gets when he meets his then-girlfriend's father, who learns that Marten's mother is a famous fetish model:
  Peter: Holy shit kid, I musta whacked it to your mom's pictures a million friggin' times! —That... that was prob'ly too much information, huh.
  Marten: It's okay. Your daughter has put my penis in her mouth.
  Peter: Touché, kid. Touché.
- In #1672, Marten drops a mention of his and Dora's sex life, which Faye does not appreciate.
  Faye: Jesus Christ, you're like a goddamn Predator drone. You wait for Dora to set you up, and then you come in outta nowhere and drop a fuckin' tactical TMI on my head.
- In #2579, Tai starts describing a "giant hairy mole" to Dora, who cuts her off.
  Dora: Okay, enough, thank you
- In #5152, when Ayo talks about her masturbation habits, Yemisi covers her ears.
Torches and Pitchforks: Winslow and Pintsize even wear kinda Amish-esque hats and brandish a pitchfork and Bible and look like the stereotypical burn the witch crowd. They go auto-da-fé on Hannelore for pinching her android-"boyfriends" ass.
Totally Radical: Conversed by Faye and Bubbles.
Faye: I'm gonna be honest: you sound like a mom trying to impress her kids with her command of internet slang.
Bubbles: Drat. I mean, "brutal self-own, el em ay oh."
Touché:
- After Dora's dad accidentally has a TMI moment with Marten, Marten's comeback leads to this.
- A variant when Faye carelessly leaves Sam alone for a moment in the workshop, and Sam gets a minor injury. Faye goes to apologize to Sam's dad Jim, and he is properly pissed off but tells her that he considers Bubbles, at any rate, a "positive influence", so he will continue to let Sam go to the workshop.
  Faye: Oh, but I'm an asshole, huh?
  Jim Bean: In this situation? Yes.
  Faye: Fair.
Trash of the Titans: Marigold's epically messy apartment, until Hannelore got to it.
Training Montage: Marten and the interns.
Transformation Sequence: Played straight and then parodied in the strip where Faye helps Bubbles to take off her armour. As a visual metaphor for Bubbles becoming more emotionally open, and being born again, it's like a butterfly emerging from its cocoon... but then, in the final frame:
Faye: [sweating bullets as she prises Bubbles' armour off with a pry bar] T'be honest, I was expectin' somethin' more magical.
Bubbles: [sitting on Faye's bed with an expression like she's undergoing painful minor surgery] When, in your experience, have I ever been magical?
Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: Sam's friend Emmett has, at a minimum, given themselves a permanent tattoo, blown up gas canisters, made crop circles to the point they were almost shot, stole a backhoe which caused them to break the town water main, and consumed enough alcohol that they fell into a ditch, broke their ankle, and nearly froze to death. Emmett is 15 at the most.
Trouser Space: Bubbles has been known to keep a road flare "betwixt my mighty glutes."
Truth in Television: The turtle humping the shoe? It exists.
Tsundere:
- Faye, from start to finish. Hannelore even gave her a shirt proclaiming such.
- Angus, at times. Lampshaded by Marigold's giggle.
- May is originally a subversion, as her anime maid form was designed to appeal to Dale's interests, something she's quite bitter about. However, she gradually becomes less prickly and eventually has a full tsundere moment.
Turned Against Their Masters: Mentioned by Faye when she issued a death warrant to Pintsize at someone.
Pintsize: Actually, we put that on indefinite hiatus.
Faye: Damn. Okay, okay, how about if you ever lose your morality programming and go berserk, she's the first one you kill?
Pintsize: I think I can do that.
20% More Awesome: Fournier-Goldman Happiness Units.
Twerp Sweating: Female version.
Twice Shy: Dale and Marigold.
Faye: Meganerd and dorkasaurus, a love to outlast the ages.

Questionable Content / Tropes Q to T

Previous

Index

Next

Questionable Content / Tropes Q to T

Edit Locked

Previous

Index

Next